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Adaptations of The Wizard Of Oz
Here is a list of stage, screen, and literary adaptions L. Frank Baum's Oz books, and each one of the versions of the Oz stage play and film adaptations do not all tell the same story. Stage productions The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz, the 1902 vaudeville-style stage play by Baum and Paul Tietjen that had yielded no enduring standards and musical numbers had little to do with the story. This musical differed quite a bit from the book about the magic and wonder of a child's world of fantasy and was aimed primarily at adults, and it added new characters to the story: Tryxie Tryfle (a waitress) and Pastoria (a streetcar operator) who were added as fellow cyclone victims, Cynthia Cynch (a woman who was a prototype for Nimmie Amee), Sir Dashemoff Daily the poet laureate; Sir Wiley Gyle, and General Riskitt. Anna Laughlin's portrayal of Dorothy Gale was quite a bit older and sexually mature teenager as some of the characters expressed a romantic interest in her, Dorothy's pet dog Toto became and was replaced with her pet cow Imogene, the wicked witch of the west was eliminated entirely in the script, the cowardly lion's part was greatly reduced and he couldn't talk, and the silver shoes are replaced by a magic ring that is good for three wishes and can summon the good witch at any time. The Woggle-Bug, a 1905 dramatization of The Marvelous Land Of Oz, which "failed to woggle," as one observer put it. It was too similar to The Wizard Of Oz, failed to draw an audience, and only played a few weeks in Milwaukee and Chicago. The Tik-Tok Man Of Oz, a 1913 dramatization of the third Oz book, Ozma Of Oz, that made enough changes to make an entirely new story. The play was successful in Los Angeles and Chicago, but never made it to Broadway. Baum used the story as the basis for his next Oz book, Tik-Tok Of Oz. The Magical Land Of Oz, the 1928 Jean Gros marionette show which was an adaptation of Ozma Of Oz written by Ruth Plumly Thompson. The Wizard Of Oz, the St. Louis Light Opera's 1942 stage version of The Wizard Of Oz is adapted from the Judy Garland movie, and uses the songs from the movie. There are three new characters created for the script: Lord Growley is the prime minister of the emerald city, Gloria is his daughter who shows Dorothy the sights and she has a song in the show that is not from the movie, and Tibia is a live skeleton who acts as the wicked witch's butler and henchman. The Wiz, a 1975 award-winning Broadway musical that has a storyline that is a fairly close re-telling, which is a more faithful adaptation of the first book's original story created by Baum. It was composed of an entirely African-American cast originally led by Stephanie Mills as Dorothy. Film versions The Fairylogue And Radio-Plays, a 1908 feature-length stage and film version that was an early attempted first effort to adapt the book to film, which showcased the young silent film actress Romola Remus, who was the first to play Dorothy Gale in film on the silver screen. The film is notable in film history because it contains the earliest original film score to be documented. It is an elaborate multimedia show on the motion picture screen, which used a mixture of the most lifelike hand-colored films, magic lantern slides, live actors, and a full orchestra. This thirteen-minute dramatization of The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz is vastly different from the more familiar story it is based on, since Dorothy meets the scarecrow before she reaches Oz. Dorothy, the scarecrow, a goat, and a cow are whisked away to Oz in a haystack. Baum himself appeared as if he were giving a lecture, while he interacted with the characters both on stage and on screen, by stepping behind the screen and into the film, and pulled his actors off to appear on stage with him. And during the intermission, there were slides showing previews of his then-forthcoming new book Dorothy And The Wizard In Oz, which was not sold in stores until near the end of the run. The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz, a 15-minute film that was made in 1910 and partly based on the 1902 stage musical, though much of the film deals with the wicked witch of the west, who does not appear in the musical. There is no definitive proof who is in the cast, but it may have featured Bebe Daniels as Dorothy, because Dorothy does resemble contemporary photos of Daniels. The Patchwork Girl Of Oz, the first of three 1914 films made by The Oz Film Manufacturing Company. It is based on the book The Patchwork Girl Of Oz, which is a fairly bare bones adaptation that is filmed in a slapstick manner with a number of modest and very limited special effects, and relies largely on dancing and costuming. The film omits the glass cat, the shaggy man, the yoop, and the phonograph, but also adds two slapstick animals: Mewel the donkey and the lonesome zoop. It follows different characters by the names of Ojo, Unc Nunkle, and the patchwork girl, in their quest for the ingredients needed for a magic potion. The patchwork girl uses acrobatics regularly with good effect, Dr. Pipt's daughter is added for love interest, and there is an additional plot thread for her boyfriend, who is turned into a small statue which women find irresistible. The Magic Cloak Of Oz, the second film from The Oz Film Manufacturing Company, and it's not actually based on an Oz book, but instead is taken from another Baum story, Queen Zixi Of Ix. It is in-depth fantasy with great characters and some creepy villains, and takes the non-Oz story and throws in several Oz characters like the cowardly lion and turns the story into an adventure in the magic land of Oz, which follows a character named Fluff, who was the unhappiest person in Oz, and a magic cloak that the fairies of Oz have devised for him to grant him one wish. The plot concerns two regions of Oz that find themselves under attack by the dreaded roly-rouges, who have unchanging faces that are actually pretty creepy for a silent children's film image, and the search for the one magic item that can save all of Oz. His Majesty, The Scarecrow Of Oz, the third and final film from The Oz Film Manufacturing Company. It is loosely based on both The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz and The Land Of Oz, but the screenplay introduced many new characters and a large new story that later became the basis for the 1915 book, The Scarecrow Of Oz. The scarecrow and the tin man, with a small amount of help from the lion, rescue Dorothy from her burden as a slave to the evil witch Mombi, who is a nasty piece of work who is loyal to the evil King Krewl of Oz. But in the end the scarecrow, with some help from the wizard and the tin man's trusty ax, soon enough set things right in Oz and in the end even place the great Ozma on the throne making for a very happy ending. The scarecrow's origin is revealed and his life is attributed to "the spirit of the corn" who appears as a conventional Hollywood depiction of a Native American, the tin woodman is found rusted stiff and oiled and he is already emperor of the winkies, the cowardly lion is encountered only briefly, and Mombi looks like W.W. Denslow's depiction of the wicked witch of the west, who seems to resemble more than a little like the great Margaret Hamilton. These films have a heavy use of slapstick and a bit too broad a pantomime that manage to capture the feeling of the early Oz books, are honest to goodness pieces of the story, and nice little side pieces to the classics that spawned them. The Wizard Of Oz, the 1925 film adaptation which is a failed silent slapstick comedy farce that served as a vehicle for comedian Larry Semon, who appeared in a lead role — that of the scarecrow as the main character of the story, but he is depicted as a farmhand on Dorothy's aunt and uncle's farm, and the scarecrow is a disguise donned by him when he finds himself swept into Oz, instead of being an actual character. Baum's son, Frank Joslyn Baum is top-billed with the writing of the script, although his actual contribution to the screenplay is doubted by Baum scholar Michael Patrick Hearn, he was certainly involved in the business angle of the production. This film is most notable today for the appearance of Oliver Hardy, who played the farmhand that disguises himself as a villainous tin man, and the reason for the tin man being a villain is because of his jealously over Dorothy preferring the scarecrow instead of him. It departs radically from the novel upon which it is based, and introduces new characters, along with a completely different plot. Dorothy Dwan portrays a character named Dorothy, who is a young woman, and she is celebrating her eighteenth birthday and discovering that she was a lost princess of Oz from birth! Dorothy is living in Kansas and she has a house transported to a world that is only barely recognizable as the land of Oz from the books via cyclone, but the resemblance to the book ends there. The story involves a bunch of male characters vying for Dorothy's affection — for either amorous or power-related reasons. It's all told through a frame tale of a grandfather reading to his young granddaughter who dreams her own scarier version of events before awaking to get a happy ending from the book. In the book, Dorothy was a little girl who formerly lived in Kansas on a farm before her first trip to Oz, where she later became a princess after moving there for good. The Wizard Of Oz, an eight-minute Technicolor animated cartoon short film version that was made in 1933. It has a script written by Frank Joslyn Baum, which is loosely inspired by his father's novel, The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz. However, it is nearly absent of language, and has a complete soundtrack working mainly with arrangements of classical music created by Carl W. Stalling. The Wizard Of Oz, the classic 1939 musical film version of the Wizard Of Oz story that was the 10th adaptation of Baum's book and is the most famous version, which is the most watched movie in history. The Oscar-winning film is a Disney-esque tale that follows the first story in Baum's series as Dorothy undergoes a musical adventure with lively songs that are used as a vehicle to establish characters and/or move the plot forward by being accompanied by choreography and cinematography so the audience doesn't feel like they're just listening to a song. It is very loosely based on and not particularly faithful adaptation of the novel, since it only tells a small portion of the story with certain liberties taken, although the plot is a great condensation from the book, instead of being an adaptation of The Wizard Of Oz that is true to the original book. Although it used material from Baum's book and the subsequent stage and screen adaptations, MGM songwriter Arthur Freed wanted it to be a new adaptation that is innovative in its own right as an integrated fantastic musical film with memorable songs that serve the colorful fantasy plot and the lovable characters that represent the people from Dorothy's real home life in Kansas. In this film version, Dorothy is a pre-adolescent twelve-year-old child, but she clearly looks older, and her story represents a coming of age as she approaches young adulthood, and was portrayed by sixteen-year-old Judy Garland, who had to wear a painful corset-style device around her torso so that she would appear younger and flat-chested while playing the role of a screen juvenile. They made Oz simply a dream which was induced by a bump on Dorothy's head, since audiences would not be expected to believe otherwise. And the wicked witch of the west is the main antagonist, who appears near the beginning, so the film ends shortly after her demise. Journey Back To Oz, an animated film that is an unofficial sequel to the 1939 film, which is loosely based on Baum's own sequel, The Marvelous Land Of Oz, the second Oz novel. The film has Dorothy and Toto once again be the victims of a twister that has them returning to Oz, where they must work against the evil witch Mombi and her herd of magic green elephants from taking over the emerald city, along with some old friends and a few new ones. The film secured some incredible voice talent, including Judy Garland's 15-year-old daughter Liza Minnelli in the role of Dorothy, only one year younger than her mother was when she performed the role, and Margaret Hamilton, also from the 1939 film, but now playing Aunt Em rather than the wicked witch of the west, who died in the earlier film. The film originally began production in 1962, but due to various financial and logistical problems behind-the-scenes, it wasn't completed and released until more than a decade later. The wizard was nowhere to be found in the theatrical version of the film, but Filmation decided to expand and reformat the film into a Christmas special for a television version shown in 1976 on ABC, which featured a live-action subplot about getting two lost children home to spend Christmas with Dorothy, these new connecting interstitial segments starred Bill Cosby as the wizard. The Wiz, a 1978 film adaptation loosely based on the 1975 Broadway stage musical of the same name, it re-imagines the classic story as an urban fantasy adventure famously featuring an entirely African-American cast including Diana Ross as Dorothy, Michael Jackson as the scarecrow, and Richard Pryor as the wiz. The Wiz follows the story of Dorothy, a 24-year-old schoolteacher from Harlem who is magically transported to the land of Oz, which an alternate fantasy version of New York City. From there, the story follows the basic plot of Dorothy meeting the scarecrow, the tin man, and the cowardly lion on her mission to find the wiz, who she hopes will send her home. The film was a commercial and critical failure, but has since become a cult hit, due to the fact that the film marks Michael Jackson's only starring theatrical role. Return To Oz, a 1985 dark fantasy film that is a darker take on the Oz tale, and its story follows an adaption of many of the elements laid out in L. Frank Baum’s second and third Oz books, The Marvelous Land Of Oz and Ozma Of Oz, and not a sequel to the 1939 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer musical film adaptation of The Wizard Of Oz starring Judy Garland. The film continues the adventures of Dorothy Gale as her stories put her in a mental institution. Her rescuer returns her to a darker Oz in need of her help where she must save the land from the wicked nome king. The film is often remembered for its nightmare-inducing elements — especially the wheelers, a cackling band of baddies who have wheels instead of hands and feet, and the opening that sees Dorothy about to be subjected to electro-shock therapy, because she probably would have some psychological fallout from her initial trip to Oz. It stars a young Fairuza Balk, is also imaginative, unexpected, well-acted, well-scored, and includes some great special effects for the time, including the claymation nome king. The Muppets' Wizard Of Oz, a 2005 television movie musical starring R&B artist Ashanti as Dorothy. This is a fairly close re-telling of plot elements from L. Frank Baum's original novel rather than the 1939 film, but the Kansas scenes are presented in de-saturated color, which is a reference to the sepia-tinted black-and-white Kansas scenes from the it. The people of Oz are based on people that Dorothy meets in Kansas, but when she is sent back home, she is still wearing the clothes that she wore while in Oz. Dorothy is an aspiring singer who lives in a Kansas trailer park, and rather than trying to get to the wizard to find a way home, Dorothy is looking for the wizard to grant her wish of becoming a famous singer. The Muppets infuse meta-satirical style jokes, pop culture references, and a little bit of risque humor into nearly every frame of this loose adaptation, which garnered mostly negative reviews from critics who felt it was slightly too mature for kid audiences and out of place for the Muppets and Oz. Oz: The Great And Powerful, a 2013 3D highly Baum-based but MGM Oz-derivative tale that is a spiritual prequel to the 1939 film, which features several artistic allusions, homages, and technical parallels to it. The film tells the story of Oscar Diggs, a circus illusionist/deceptive magician, the future wizard of Oz, who arrives in the land of Oz and encounters three attractive witches: Theodora, Evanora, and Glinda who lead him into intrigue and warfare for the rule of the emerald city. Oscar is then enlisted to restore order in Oz while struggling to resolve conflicts with the witches and himself. The film's opening sequence is presented in black and white and shifts to full color when Oscar arrives in Oz, Glinda travels in a giant bubble, the emerald city is actually emerald, and the wicked witch of the west has the iconic look of the hideous green-skinned witch. Several Oz characters have counterparts in Kansas: 1. Frank, Oscar's long-suffering yet loyal assistant whom he refers to as his "trained monkey". Frank's Oz counterpart is the winged monkey Finley, who pledges an irrevocable life debt to Oscar, believing him to be the prophesied wizard, for saving him from the cowardly lion. He quickly regrets his decision when Oscar reveals he is not a wizard, but nonetheless becomes his loyal ally. 2. A young girl in a wheelchair who is volunteering in Oscar's magic show serves as the Kansas counterpart to China Girl, a young, living china doll. In Kansas, Oscar is unable to make the wheelchair-bound girl walk, and gets a chance to do so when he repairs China Girl's broken legs. 3. Annie, a woman who is an old flame of Oscar's, and is seen wearing a gingham dress. She inspires Oscar to be a good and great person, and informs him that she has been proposed to by John Gale, which makes her the future mother of Dorothy Gale. Annie's Oz counterpart, Glinda, also inspires Oscar to be a better person. Literary adaptations The Wizard Of Oz - This Illustrated Junior Library edition of L. Frank Baum's novel The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz features the full original text of the classic story, however Evelyn Copelman's excellent black and white line art drawings and painted lovely color plates were not based on W.W. Denslow's original pictures, but instead were a full new set of darker more realistic and less cartoon-like illustrations with a lot of visuals coming from the MGM-styled version of Oz in the movie, so the characters more closely resemble the ones seen in the famous iconic 1939 musical film adaptation version of Baum's book: the scarecrow looks just like Ray Bolger, the tin woodman has a Denslow body and a Jack Haley head, Dorothy Gale's look is definitely inspired by Judy Garland, except that she is a little girl and has braids instead of pigtails, Toto is a cairn terrier, and the wizard looks like Frank Morgan. The one single exception to this is the cowardly lion who resembles a real lion who walks and stands on all fours, and is not based on Bert Lahr's portrayal of an anthropormorphic lion who stands and walks on his hind legs while his front paws are hand-like. The Wizard Of Oz - Ray Bolger, who played the scarecrow in MGM's Wizard Of Oz movie, is the storyteller of the Caedmon Records audiobook basic abridgement of the original novel of The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz, and gives a delightful performance with little vocal gestures and chuckles for the characters: Dorothy Gale has a tone of innocence, the scarecrow has a different voice so he doesn't sound the same as he did in the movie, the tin woodman sounds squeaky, and the cowardly lion sounds like his Oz co-star Bert Lahr. This short story version removes the events that help the scarecrow, tin woodman, and cowardly lion prove their qualities to Dorothy without realizing themselves or put them to the test, since Dorothy and her friends arrive at the emerald city after meeting the cowardly lion, the wicked witch immediately summons the winged monkeys, and the journey south to Glinda are told without any incidents. The Wizard Of Oz - This Great Illustrated Classics version of The Wizard Of Oz is an easy-to-read adaptation of L. Frank Baum's novel, and featuring large print and illustrations on every other page. The story is targeted at children, but the writing style is suitable for adult readers as well, while the drawings resemble the character designs used in the MGM film. The Wizard Of Oz - This Classics Illustrated Junior version of The Wizard Of Oz is a relatively faithful comic book adaptation of L. Frank Baum's original novel that includes drawings which resemble the character designs used in the MGM film. The comic also features an extra story of an adaptation of Aesop's fable of "The Fox And The Lion", where the lion looks very much like the Oz lion, in which a fox learns how not to be scared of something by getting used to it, a page to "Old Mother Hubbard", a one-page factual article about koala bears called "The Animal World: The Koala", and ends with the end flap having a full-page Oz coloring page illustration of the friends with the cowardly lion to color with crayons. The Story And Songs Of The Wizard Of Oz - This version of The Wizard Of Oz is a 45-minute 12-inch full-length long-playing radio theater-style storyteller vinyl record adaptation especially prepared for very young children that is a unique combination of a composite of the original novel and the MGM musical film. The story was adapted by Jimmy Johnson and is based on the book by L. Frank Baum. The record's case opens up into a giant-sized 11-page read-along picture storybook that contains magnificent full-color drawings illustrated by the Walt Disney studio's staff artists, where many characters have original designs, but some of the more classic characters are based on their classic designs. The story is narrated by Robie Lester as an adult Dorothy Gale, who tells the familiar classic story of the adventure of how she and her dog Toto were taken from Kansas to the land of Oz by a cyclone, and it includes the songs: "Somewhere, Over The Rainbow", "Ding Dong! The Wicked Witch Is Dead!", "If I Only Had A Brain", "Follow The Yellow Brick Road", "We're Off To See The Wizard", and "The Merry Old Land Of Oz". The record's case opens up into a giant-sized 11-page read-along picture storybook that contains magnificent full-color drawings illustrated by the Walt Disney studio's staff artists, where many characters have original designs, but some of the more classic characters are based on their classic designs. The read-along book and cassette tape edition was a very basic, simple, and much more abbreviated adaptation of The Wizard Of Oz that featured the character voices imitating the MGM film actors, and is narrated by Hal Smith. It is the first of four Oz-themed "story and songs" storyteller record albums featuring Oz stories with songs and record cases that open into original picture storybooks with illustrations for the stories. "The Scarecrow Of Oz" and "The Tin Woodman Of Oz" also feature stories that are adaptations based on Baum's Oz books, but "The Cowardly Lion Of Oz" is a completely original story with songs and is not an adaptation of the Ruth Plumly Thompson story of the same name. The Story And Songs Of The Scarecrow Of Oz - This version of The Scarecrow Of Oz is a 43-minute 12-inch full-length long-playing radio theater-style storyteller vinyl record adaptation, it was adapted by Jimmy Johnson and is based on the book by L. Frank Baum. The story begins several chapters into Baum's original book, since it starts with the scarecrow visiting Glinda's palace and going to Jinxland, where he meets Trot and Pon, but the story follows the book pretty faithfully. It is narrated by Ray Bolger as the scarecrow and includes two songs: an original one called "Happy Glow" and a children's chorus cover version of "Somewhere, Over The Rainbow". Ray Bolger appeared only on this record, and one can almost imagine this as a side piece to his other Oz readings for Caedmon Audio. The Story And Songs Of The Tin Woodman Of Oz - This version of The Tin Woodman Of Oz is a 43-minute 12-inch full-length long-playing radio theater-style storyteller vinyl record adaptation, it was adapted by Jimmy Johnson and is based on the book by L. Frank Baum. The story follows Baum's book rather faithfully with the addition of the cowardly lion and the looking for the true love plot for the other characters, which waters the story down, because one theme in that book was that sometimes the conventional fairy tale ending isn't the happiest. This is not carried over here, since the ending of this story slightly differs from the original novel because it was re-written to have all the main characters get married. It is narrated by Sam Edwards as the tin woodman and includes three original songs written especially for this record: "I Dream Of True Love", "I'm Mrs. Yoop, The Yookoohoo", and "I Found My True Love." The Story And Songs Of The Cowardly Lion Of Oz - This version of The Cowardly Lion Of Oz is a 43-minute 12-inch full-length long-playing radio theater-style storyteller vinyl record album featuring an entirely original new story that isn't a straight up adaptation of and not based on the book by Ruth Plumly Thompson, since it takes little material from and bears no resemblance to it. However, the claims of the album notes say that it is an adaptation, despite that it is not. It is narrated by Sam Edwards as the cowardly lion and includes six songs: "Living A Lovely Life", "Trouble In Oz", "The Ozphabet", "Just Call Smarmy", "The Puppet Polka", and "If You'll Just Believe", they were not written especially for this record, but were originally intended for a movie called "The Rainbow Road To Oz" that was to bring the Mousketeers from TV to film. This album is the final story in a little series of an adaptation of The Wizard Of Oz and stories about each of Dorothy's first original three friends on the yellow brick road in Oz: the scarecrow, the tin woodman, and the cowardly lion. Return To Oz - This version of Return To Oz is a 13-minute 7-inch full-length long-playing storyteller record adaptation of Disney's 1985 film of the same name, which retells an actually decent good and nice short adaptation of the story of the film in a radio theater-style format, but with subtle changes, since it loses some vital key details with some minor bad guys and gives Tik-Tok slightly more of a role. It is narrated by William Woodson, and contains none of the audio from the film, but instead uses new voice actors, who are a small cast of British-sounding sound-alikes, to record dialogue. One of the cast members is a little girl named Dana Howerton, who sounds a bit like Fairuza Balk, performing the role of Dorothy. The record also comes packaged with a 24-page read-along picture storybook and the pages are condensed versions that contain full-color rare photographs from the original motion picture, instead of creating new illustrated paintings like the many other previous books that told the film's story.Category:Lists Category:The Wizard Of Oz